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Topic: So... Board Games?

Vassal will not enforce rules for you, but the modules basically give you the pieces you need and the board. Great tool for trying out games with friends before making a purchase on something more expensive.

I recently (re: Friday evening) played the DC Comics Deck-Building Game and Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer for the first time. They're both deck builders with MORE than a few similarities to Dominion, but DC Comics seemed to have more shenanigans and tricks, at least for games with two or three players. Ascension was smarter with its resource management and seemed a little more tactical than DCC, but a little easier to manage and with a bit less variety. I think Ascension is probably the "purer" game, but I honestly had more fun playing the DC Comics DBG. It was sillier, had clearer objectives, and appealed to me as a fan of DC Comics. I'm not saying these games are better than Dominion (which is sort of elegant than those two), but they're easy to pick up and fun to play. Ascension seemed like a faster-moving fantasy-themed Dominion. DC Comics DBG is like mixing Dominion with Munchkin and adding superheroes.

PS: Aquaman is probably the best superhero card in the game. This is sort of wrong.

PS: Aquaman is probably the best superhero card in the game. This is sort of wrong.

Sorta wrong my ass. That's straight up ridiculous. I mean, are you playing under a red sun and are the Batman Gambits really that hard to pull off? Or is it a case where most of the field is underwater which means everyone's going to be struggling outside of the Getter Machine 3 which is going to have a field day with its natural A water ranking (this is an SRW reference) (and even then Superman is just straight up better than anyone at anything outside of magic and being crazy prepared)? Of course, the game could just be poorly balanced.

The balance is okay. It's just that Aquaman's ability is good no matter how the cards drop. My brief ranking of the DCCDBG superheroes, because why the **** not. Keep in mind that all cards are either Superpowers, Equipment, Heroes, or Villains and they have roughly equal distribution in the deck.

Top TierAquaman - you can place newly gained cards on top of your deck instead of your discard pile if they cost 5 power or less. Because it's type-neutral, you don't need to have a set buying strategy and can almost guarantee you'll always have at least two decent cards per hand. Green Lantern - if you play at least three non-starter cards with different names during your turn, +3 power. Basically, once GL has a deck going on turn 3 or 4, you'll have an almost guaranteed +3 per turn. That's excellent. Type neutrality also helps greatly. Martian Manhunter - if you play two or more Hero cards in one turn, +3 power; if you play two or more Villain cards in one turn, +3 power. This means you can focus on two card types and get +3 bonuses often. The bonus has a power ceiling, but that ceiling is a crazy-good +6 that Batman or Superman can rarely achieve. Only reason Green Lantern is better is that his bonus is more randomization-proof.

Mid TierBatman - each Equipment card gives +1 Power during your turn. Batman's is probably the simplest hero ability - buy as much equipment and equipment bonuses as you can. If a lot of Equipment pops up, he's awesome. If it doesn't, he isn't any better than other Superhero cards. Superman - each different Superpower card gives +1 Power during your turn. Superman is almost the same as Batman, but because of the commonality of Kick they add that "each different" clause. Superman's still good, as Superpower cards are common and often excellent, but Batman is more repeat-friendly. Flash - You always go first. Once per turn, whenever you draw a card, you may draw an additional card. Always going first is neat (but mostly forgettable), but extra draws are always welcome. If you get a Location card or some cheap draws in the early turns, Flash is very effective.

Low TierCyborg - after you play your first Equipment card in a turn gives +1 Power. After you play your first Superpower in a turn, draw a card. Like a gimped half-Batman half-Superman. Cyborg can focus on two card types for his buying strategy, but can't get a better bonus than +1 and drawing a card. Wonder Woman - whenever you gain a Villain or Supervillain, you may draw one additional card at the end of your turn. Wonder Woman has a good ability, giving you additional cards for defending against player attacks OR for your next turn, but she has to buy villains first. Diana gets no card-specific bonuses, and as such has trouble building Power in the early game.

TL;DR Other people should play this game so I'm talking to an empty internet. New expansion is coming out in a few months (boom). Sorry for being so unnecessarily verbose.

The balance is okay. It's just that Aquaman's ability is good no matter how the cards drop. My brief ranking of the DCCDBG superheroes, because why the **** not. Keep in mind that all cards are either Superpowers, Equipment, Heroes, or Villains and they have roughly equal distribution in the deck.

Top TierAquaman - you can place newly gained cards on top of your deck instead of your discard pile if they cost 5 power or less. Because it's type-neutral, you don't need to have a set buying strategy and can almost guarantee you'll always have at least two decent cards per hand. Green Lantern - if you play at least three non-starter cards with different names during your turn, +3 power. Basically, once GL has a deck going on turn 3 or 4, you'll have an almost guaranteed +3 per turn. That's excellent. Type neutrality also helps greatly. Martian Manhunter - if you play two or more Hero cards in one turn, +3 power; if you play two or more Villain cards in one turn, +3 power. This means you can focus on two card types and get +3 bonuses often. The bonus has a power ceiling, but that ceiling is a crazy-good +6 that Batman or Superman can rarely achieve. Only reason Green Lantern is better is that his bonus is more randomization-proof.

Mid TierBatman - each Equipment card gives +1 Power during your turn. Batman's is probably the simplest hero ability - buy as much equipment and equipment bonuses as you can. If a lot of Equipment pops up, he's awesome. If it doesn't, he isn't any better than other Superhero cards. Superman - each different Superpower card gives +1 Power during your turn. Superman is almost the same as Batman, but because of the commonality of Kick they add that "each different" clause. Superman's still good, as Superpower cards are common and often excellent, but Batman is more repeat-friendly. Flash - You always go first. Once per turn, whenever you draw a card, you may draw an additional card. Always going first is neat (but mostly forgettable), but extra draws are always welcome. If you get a Location card or some cheap draws in the early turns, Flash is very effective.

Low TierCyborg - after you play your first Equipment card in a turn gives +1 Power. After you play your first Superpower in a turn, draw a card. Like a gimped half-Batman half-Superman. Cyborg can focus on two card types for his buying strategy, but can't get a better bonus than +1 and drawing a card. Wonder Woman - whenever you gain a Villain or Supervillain, you may draw one additional card at the end of your turn. Wonder Woman has a good ability, giving you additional cards for defending against player attacks OR for your next turn, but she has to buy villains first. Diana gets no card-specific bonuses, and as such has trouble building Power in the early game.

TL;DR Other people should play this game so I'm talking to an empty internet. New expansion is coming out in a few months (boom). Sorry for being so unnecessarily verbose.

Other than switching Green Lantern and Martian Manhunter I would agree fully with this assessment. There are of course cards that can be played to enhance some of the weaker card abilities (Dark Knight for instance gives Batman ridiculousness later and Man of Steel + Superman =ungodly)

I am actually quite excited for the expansion.

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All right, we are going to use a fan brush here and uh why don't you take some hunter green and we are going to put a happy little bush right down over here in the corner there and that'll just be our little secret and if you tell anyone that that bush is there I will come to your house and I will cut you.

It looks like the promotional hero is Starfire, but we don't know when the events where she's available are going to take place. Black Canary and Hawkman have logical follow-up powers, but the others can get wonky:

Shazam - You may pay 4 power. If you do, gain the first card of the main deck. You may put it on top of your deck or the discard pile. Batgirl - Once during each of your turns, you may discard a punch card. If you do, draw a cardRed Tornado - Once during each of your turns, if there are four or more different card types in your discard pile, +2 powerBlack Canary - +1 Power for each different villain you play during your turn.Starfire - Once during each of your turns, if there are no super powers in the line-up, draw a card.Hawkman - +1 Power for each hero you play during your turn.Booster Gold - +1 Power for each DEFENSE card you play during your turn. If you avoid an attack, draw a cardNightwing - The first time you play an equipment during your turn, +1 Power. The second time you play an equipment during your turn, draw a card.

None of them seem as good as the top tier of my earlier post, but I'm intrigued by Shazam, Red Tornado, and Booster Gold. I like superheroes that don't require you to focus on one card type.

Played a few games of Catan, setup took quite awhile, might get the other expansion now. Looked into both the DC, Marvel and RE deckbuilding games and they seem fun, or maybe I'm just crazy into card games. I used to and still do play VS system for my comic book hero battling action, even though that games discontinued, just buy some cheap boxes once in awhile online to draft. Plus since it's discontinued it's cheap and I've built a crazy amount of decks, JSA top tier for some reason.

I bought an SNK starter deck of the Vs System years ago, but I didn't have much fun with it. My one MTG-obsessed friend and I tried it and decided that our money was better spent elsewhere. But then again I prefer the idea of a standalone DBG to a traditional CCG.

I bought an SNK starter deck of the Vs System years ago, but I didn't have much fun with it. My one MTG-obsessed friend and I tried it and decided that our money was better spent elsewhere. But then again I prefer the idea of a standalone DBG to a traditional CCG.

I think you're thinking of UFS, which is the kof/street fighter/soul calibur card game, I found that game to have a bit too many mechanics although it did simulate fighting games pretty well. VS system is the card game with DC and Marvel characters, it was discontinued awhile ago but I find it's a very fun and flavorful game. It's main problem is that games take too long and the formation mechanic is really deep. I love how each team has a unique style, for instance Injustice Gang actually makes your opponent draw cards and gets stronger the more cards they have in their hand. Secret Society actually wants to deck themselves out and some characters abilities only trigger when you have no cards left in deck like http://vs.tcgplayer.com/db/card.asp?id=2449 . But yeah, I still buy boxes once in awhile and draft with friends.

OK, you're right. I was definitely playing UFS and didn't like it, but I don't think I've tried Vs. I'll look it up, but it's unlikely that I'll take part.

When I was at the game shop where I first tried the DC DBG a few months ago, I also tried the Marvel DBG that was released at almost the same time: Legendary. Legendary was pretty fun, and was a little more unique than DC DBG - characters and supervillains had specific deck attacks that they used, and the game seemed more like co-op combat than a race to build victory points like the DC DBG. I had fun with it when I playtested, but ultimately decided to buy the DC DBG because it cost $20 less and the store had one last copy with the Martian Manhunter promo card. Since then I've really enjoyed the DC DBG, and don't regret choosing it over Legendary. But I wouldn't mind playing more of the latter.

Played the heck out of Ascension on Saturday. 3 games of Storm of Souls and 1 Chronicle of the Godslayer + Return of the Fallen. The new mechanics in Storm of Souls really improve the game balance. People who run Mechana are less likely to have ten thousand constructs in front of them for super long combos because the new cards encourage destroying constructs for bonuses. The difference really showed when we went back to Chronicle of the Godslayer and someone managed to get 8 constructs out by end game--and we were trying to stop him. It was ridiculous.

Also learned two new games: Last Will and Hanabi. Hanabi is a quick co-op game where players see everyone else's cards but their own and give others clues on what cards to play. Goal is to get as many points as possible based on placing 5 card suits in 1-5 order on the board. A good light and fun game.

Last Will turns most Eurogames on their head with players competing to lose the most money/all their money, whichever comes first. It's really a resource management, worker placement game, but the theme is refreshing compared to the usual "get most VP to win." Also has good player turn mechanics and balanced cards. There's no "auto win" card or strategy. Definitely will play again.

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"Clockwork is clockwork. One. Two. In. Out. But Necessity she a goddess. She turn your muscles to water and your bones to oil. One day you meet her and you will see that Mobius is right." - Mobius the Stripper